RADIO REVIEW:THOSE LISTENERS who phone into Liveline(RTÉ Radio One, weekdays) are usually either devastated or outraged. On Wednesday, they were incensed with Mary O'Rourke for her comments on former ceann comhairle John O'Donoghue. "I am so fuming I am hardly able to enunciate," one woman said.
Earlier that day, O'Rourke went on News At One(RTÉ Radio One, weekdays) to compliment O'Donoghue on his valedictory speech in the Dáil on Tuesday. (Others had widely criticised him for his defiant tone and the lack of any substantial explanation of his exorbitant expenses.) O'Rourke's only big mistake was that she dared to be measured: "He had a terrific script. I'm sure he wrote it himself. Perhaps someone shaped it for him, I don't know, but it was like a three-act play." She added, "It was very well crafted and nobody can take that from him." But she didn't deny that he had some explaining to do. In fact, O'Rourke said that had he spoken up earlier there might even have been a different outcome. She also said she understood why the public was so upset: "There are very many people who haven't the money to buy tomorrow's dinner."
Others have the fate of the Government in their hands. On Monday's McGurk on 4(4FM, weekdays), Tom McGurk asked Green Party TD Ciarán Cuffe if it was a good thing that so few people held so much power. Cuffe said it was the same with the now-disbanded Galway Tent. "I imagine they had almost as much influence, so it's horses for courses," he said. Staying with this equine theme, he also said it was difficult dealing with Government policy and party politics: "It can be hard to straddle to horses." But, by the end of the interview, Cuffe was starting to sound like John Wayne on a bad day: "It's tough to be in Government. It's tough to be in Government with Fianna Fáil. It's tough to be in Government with Fianna Fáil during a recession. It ain't easy."
Unlike Cuffe, soccer commentator Eamon Dunphy was in unusually humble form this week. He used the word "shameful" on television on Saturday night to describe the Irish soccer team's performance against Italy. But he went on Wednesday's Morning Irelandto set the record straight. "It was basically not the right word to use for the performance," he said. "They're a fantastic group of players." He saved his ire for the Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni.
“I think he’s come to the conclusion that our players aren’t really good enough and, he’s said this himself, the system has to carry us through.”
One player, Stephen Hunt, had called Dunphy “a skinny little rat”. Dunphy said, “Stephen Hunt’s not exactly Mr Universe himself.” Touché.
If Hunt was a man, not a mouse, he would apologise too.
Somebody who is light years away from saying sorry is former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. He has skin thicker than even Dunphy's. Of late, he is everywhere flogging his autobiography. Eamon Keane gave him a right grilling on Wednesday's Lunchtime(Newstalk 106-108, weekdays). Keane asked him about unusual deposits and withdrawals in his bank accounts in the 1990s. "If you wanted to do anything odd, you'd do what a lot of people do in this country, you'd never put it into the account at all," said Ahern, who as a government minister did not have one himself.
“I was never able to do what a lot of ordinary people were able to do, buy houses in France, Spain and Italy and buy houses down the country,” he added. “I find it hard enough to have one house and very ordinary people in this country can afford to do a lot better than that.” Aside from inadvertently coining the term “very ordinary people”, or VOPs, Ahern appeared to lay blame for the financial crisis at the doorstep of the Central Bank which, he said, did not tell the Department of Finance that banks were overextending themselves.
“All I can tell you, Eamon, is that it was never brought to my attention.” Keane protested: “You had economists screaming about it.” But the unflappable Ahern again pointed the finger at the Central Bank.
Before former Central Bank of Ireland governor John Hurley retired, he cited the surprise collapse of Lehman Brothers in the US as one of the main reasons why he didn’t do more to prevent the financial crisis. Ahern’s defence was similar: there will always be someone out there more culpable than you.